


#2 The (Un)Real World

by lantia4ever



Series: WinterIron Stargate prompts [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Episode 03x06 The Real World, Hurt Bucky, Hydra shenanigans, Inspired, M/M, Protective Tony, Stargate Atlantis - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-08 12:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7757437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lantia4ever/pseuds/lantia4ever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky wakes up in a psychiatric hospital without a single memory of how he ended up there. The strange doctor that greets him is also far from helpful.<br/>That is until he learns that during an attack on the Stark Tower year and a half ago, HYDRA re-activated the Soldier and he killed someone, hence agreeing to be locked in here for everyone's safety.<br/>It breaks him. More than HYDRA was ever able to in the past seven decades. But before he lets his mind succumb to the despair, he notices that not everything is the way it seems. The doctor's and Steve's story being the first thing on the list.</p><p>Based on the Stargate Atlantis season three episode six - The Real World.</p><p> </p><p>  <em>As per usual, no knowledge of the episode or Stargate in general is needed; this fic is merely inspired by the episode's plot ^^ </em></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! ^^ How are y'all enjoying summer? (I sure as hell am not, because I'm a Winter kinda person *coughcough*) 
> 
> So...I've ended my writing holidays and am back in business! <3 Starting with another installment of the WinterIron Stargate prompts thing...while secretly finishing a couple new chapters of the new OHHAAT sequel :3 And since that one is full of evil, I thought I'd pick a Stargate episode that would fit in with the evil mood. And 3x06 The Real world is just what I needed. 
> 
> Because apparantly I've decided Bucky didn't have his brain fucked with by HYDRA quite enough :3 So here we go ^^
> 
> Enjoy the read and let me know what you think <3 
> 
> Will be updated throughout the week ;) 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own the Marvel or Stargate characters or universe...just taking them for a ride into my own. Not beta'ed! I take full credit for any and all grammar horrors you might encounter!

Bucky doesn't remember joining the Asgardian Mead party last night but here he is, waking up with a major headache and fatigued like he danced through the night. Drinking and dancing used to be his thing back in the days, but he really doesn't remember going back to basics. Not even for Steve’s birthday.

Hell...if he doesn't even remember, the chances are he really got drunk and prolly embarrassed himself in front of everyone. Not that he cares...unless Tony was part of that everyone.

"Ugh..." he groans and starts sitting up on the uncomfortable bed. Definitely not in the Tower then. The first thing he really notices is that the new metal arm Tony’s made for him is not there anymore. What the hell?

"He's waking up, doctor," an unfamiliar voice announces and just as unfamiliar face suddenly appears in front of Bucky's.

It takes all his regained self-control to not grab the man's neck and break it right there and then. "Wha' happ'nd?" He asks instead, keeping a wary eye on his surroundings. He's in some sort of awfully white room - a hospital? - and aside from the strange doctor there's a nurse at the foot of his bed too.

"You tell me, Mister Barnes. What do you remember?" The doctor asks and Bucky sobers. That's never a good question. Especially when he's not too sure about the answer.

"I dunno...was in the Tower the whole afternoon and then...I don't really r'member," he answers honestly and watches the two exchange a strange look.

"I see. Let's start with something simple then. What date is it?"

He thinks for a moment and shrugs. "Depends on how long I’ve been out of it...'twas Sunday, July the third."

Judging by the doctor's eyes widening in alarm, that wasn't the right answer either. "And what year is it?"

Okay, days Bucky would understand. Maybe even months if something really fucked up happened but _years_?! "It's 2016...right?" He adds hopefully and almost regrets it when the nurse gasps.

"Well...that sets us back quite a bit," the doctor whispers to himself, but Bucky's sharp hearing catches on.

"Sets us back?" He asks, confused and angry at his own blank mind. "What the hell is goin' on? Are the Avengers here, too? Where is _here_ anyway?! And who are _you_?!"

He gives Bucky an encouraging smile and introduces himself. “I’m Doctor Adam Fletcher. I’m the head Psychiatrist here in Willoughby State Hospital.”

A shrink?! Exactly what Bucky needs right now.

“We met over a year ago, after the…incident. We worked together on your recovery. But…if you say the last thing you remember is Sunday the third of July last year then…you don’t remember any of it,” he explains further.

“Incident? What inci – did you just say _last year_?! But – ”

“Bucky?” he interrupts him. “It would be better if we talked in my office,” he offers carefully and heads for the door.

 

 

Bucky follows the shifty doctor through the hospital corridors, patients and other doctors casually walking past them as they go. He notices the signs on the doors…the security personnel…the crazed looks of the other patients.

This is a psychiatric hospital.

To say the fact sends waves of absolute fear through Bucky’s veins would be an understatement. By the time they reach the office and the doctor – Adam Fletcher – tells him to sit down, Bucky’s terrified.

“Sometimes,” he begins with a sigh, almost as if he’s already told the story before, “one’s brain decides to…forget certain events. Particularly stressful or traumatic events. Needless to say you’ve had your fair share of trauma with everything HYDRA’s put you through in the past six decades. You should know that what I’m about to tell you won’t be easy for you to hear. Or believe, as I’ve learnt before. But it’s the truth.”

“Alright, stop scaring the shit outta me and just tell me what the hell happened!” Bucky explodes, but Fletcher’s face remains unfazed.

“The incident I mentioned? It happened on July fourth, 2016, during the Independence Day celebrations in the Stark Tower. Or should I say Captain America’s birthday celebrations? Either or.”

“Yeah…that was supposed to be…tomorrow or whatever. We spent the entire weekend decorating the place in red white and blue,” he chuckles despite himself.

Fletcher smiles almost sadly. “Yes, that you did. Bucky…there is no easy way to say this, so I will just say it. That celebration didn’t end well. The Tower was attacked by HYDRA.”

HYDRA?! Bucky searches his elusive memory for any little piece that would confirm those words, but there are none.

“The Avengers fought them off just fine…until…Bucky, they triggered the Winter Soldier programming again,” he deadpans and Bucky freezes, head jerking side to side.

“No…that’s…that’s not possible. We worked through the triggers…the commands…the words…they have no affect on me anymore!”

“You didn’t work through all of them…there were more. Some weren’t even in the book you acquired from Zemo.”

Bucky stares at the man, his blank mind even more sinister than before – a clear sign that he’s missing something. Something important. “What did I do?” he asks in a broken whisper.

Fletcher looks away solemnly and it’s all Bucky needs to know to gather the answer. “There were casualties…among the team. I would rather not be specific for now. It would be better if you remembered yourself as the last time I simply told you wasn’t very…productive, afterwards. When you came back to yourself and realized what you’ve done, you insisted to be put to a safe location where you wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone ever again. Captain Rogers suggested this facility and…you’ve been here ever since. Two days ago you had…an episode. A breakdown, to be more precise which is why you’ve ended up back in the special care unit.”

He continues to shake his head, the flesh hand finding its way to his once again longish hair, gripping at it tight. “No…no,” he mumbles.

“It’s alright…Bucky, please calm down. We’ve been over this. It wasn’t you. It was the Soldier. You couldn’t have controlled him. It wasn’t your fault.”

Fletcher continues to sputter all this nonsense but all Bucky really hears is his voice telling him he let HYDRA take control again and…he killed someone. _Casualties_. He killed more than one person. Who did he…it wasn’t Steve, Fletcher said Steve suggested this place so he’s fine, but…

“Can I talk to him?” Bucky asks in a whimper. He needs someone he knows…someone he trusts…because right now he can’t trust himself.

“Captain Rogers?” Fletcher guesses and nods. “Of course. I can call him in for tomorrow. Why don’t you go rest until then? I’ve adjusted your medication so don’t worry, you’ll be alright in no time,” he smiles, attempting reassurance, but it does nothing for Bucky.

His head hurts, it pounds from the inside like something was trying to break out of it. This is all insane…how could he forget something like this…

He lets two buff looking men escort him back to his…cell, for the lack of a better word, and he only manages to collapse back onto the bed and curl onto himself before he lets the tears and the cries out.

For a moment there, he could swear he hears someone call out to him from behind the doors, a familiar voice, but he just hugs himself tighter and sobs even harder, until the pain and the exhaustion puts him to restless sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve tells Bucky what happened. Or does he?

“Hey, Bucky,” Steve greets him in the common room of the hospital and Bucky’s hope is extinguished with a single look at his best friend.

He wanted this to be just a bad post-hangover dream…a lie, an illusion. But that tight, forced smile on Steve’s lips, his tense shoulders and sorrowful eyes tell a different story.

This is real.

“Bucky?” Steve approaches him with an expression full of pity, moving to hug him but Bucky just backs off on instinct.

He’s a monster…a murderer…he doesn’t deserve his pity. Or his comforting touch. “Who was it?” He blurts out, watching Steve’s hurt face intently. “Who did I kill?”

Steve shakes his head resolutely. “No. Bucky…you didn’t kill anyone! It wasn’t - ”

“Who was it?!” he barks at him weakly, tears escaping his eyes.

Steve’s face hardens and Bucky realizes how hard this must be for him to say…to remember. “Sam…he pushed Natasha away…saved her life, actually,” he replies in a stone cold voice. “Wanda…she tried to stop the Soldier – control him – and it worked for a moment. But it distracted her from the HYDRA agents and…” he trails off, knowing it’s unnecessary to say the rest. Steve looks down nervously and that’s where Bucky knows that’s not all.

“And?” he prompts him.

“Rhodey…he was in no shape to fight yet but when…,” Steve takes a steadying breath and pauses.

“When what?”

“That’s enough, Bucky,” he tells him softly, sounding desperate.

“Tell me!” he urges his best friend, taking a few fast steps forward, halting when the two security guys alert to his outburst and come closer.

But it’s really Steve’s flinch and a step back that stops him.

Steve’s afraid. Of _him_. _Steve_!

“Tony…,” Steve whispers and Bucky’s breath hitches. “When the Soldier killed Tony, Rhodey…he fought him and…” Steve adds and doesn’t finish, just watches Bucky with his own tears making their way down his face.

“No…,” Buck pleads, sliding against the wall he backs off into. “No…not Tony…no…”

“I’m so sorry, Bucky,” Steve apologizes…Steve _apologizes_ , like _he’s_ the one who killed them…who killed Tony.

He killed Tony.

He killed him.

“Please, Bucky…calm down, it wasn’t your fault…”

“Stop saying that!” he shouts and when he looks up to glare at Steve he freezes in fright.

Because Steve’s face is distorted as if Bucky couldn’t focus his eyes on it properly so it flashes in a blur of other faces. And it’s scary enough for Bucky to forget the panic and shock from what he’s just learnt so he can focus on reality.

He didn’t really go insane…did he?

When he blinks a couple times, Steve’s face is back to normal, teary–eyed and confused. Much like Bucky's.

“You should go now,” Bucky utters and watches Steve nod and move to the exit hesitantly.

Bucky doesn’t understand…why doesn’t he remember any of it? Sure, he could have lost his mind but how the hell did he lose an entire year?! He killed so many people before…and he remembers all of them. The families, the children…Tony’s parents. All of them. At one point he thought that’s some twisted mechanic the Winter Soldier programming had – making him remember.

So why forget now? Because he killed his friends this time? Because…he killed Tony? Then why forget the entire last year?!

Bucky’s confusion escalates when he spots a figure behind the glass doors leading to the emergency fire exit. The glass is see-through, yet the figure is blurry…just like Steve’s face just moments before.

The dark silhouette just stands there, unnoticed, so Bucky gets up, moving towards the doors.

He secretly hopes the person behind the doors will become recognizable as he comes closer, but if anything it becomes even more hauntingly distorted.

When he reaches the door, the person’s head cocks to the side and suddenly a hand reaches out against the glass, making Bucky jump away. He collides with the strong arms of the security guys and something inside of him urges him to struggle.

At first he fears it’s the Soldier, trying to come alive, but he knows how the Soldier feels when he stirs within him and this is not it. This feels like one of his own instincts telling him he should fight.

So he does.

“Let me go!” he grunts at the two men and starts wriggling out of their hold, but somehow he’s no match for them. It might be the medication or the off-balance way he feels without the metal arm, but the two men overpower him almost easily, injecting him with some quick working drugs.

Not quick enough for Bucky to miss someone call for him - again - from behind the glass doors.

“Bucky!” A desperate call…somewhat familiar, too.

But he doesn’t have time to decipher it or its meaning because the drugs take him under the next moment.

 

 

“This must be the result of the medication adjustment I’ve made two weeks ago. You’ve been getting much better so I thought it would be appropriate…but it would seem I was wrong. And judging from the most acute symptoms you’ve described, I might have toned it down _too_ much.”

Bucky just nods, not sure what he could bring to the conversation.

“Any other new symptoms? Other than the hallucinations? Headaches, paranoia, further time loss?”

He shakes his head and continues to look down at his feet.

“Alright. I will re-adjust the meds and we’ll see how it goes. It’s going to be alright, Bucky,” Fletcher smiles and to Bucky it still looks somehow off. Maybe the paranoia is a thing after all.

Everything about this place is off. Like Bucky doesn't belong here. Maybe it's his mind still not providing answers about the past year...but he can't shake the feeling that something's wrong.

Fletcher dismisses him and he's led back to his room. The same nurse that's always around brings him the new set of meds and leaves him to himself.

He takes a curious look around himself and nothing _seems_ out of place. There are no strange sounds or mysterious shadow figures anywhere. So he decides that maybe, just maybe, he should listen to the doctor and do as he's told to get better.

He grabs the pills and goes to the sink to get himself a glass of water but as soon as he approaches the mirror, he reels back with a gasp, dropping the pills to the floor where they scatter around.

He stares at the twisted, unrecognizable reflection of himself and covers his face with his hand, backing off into the cool bathroom wall.

" _Don't_ ," comes that strangely familiar voice again, but he just shakes his head, a sob escaping his mouth. "Bucky!"

"Stop!" He shrieks at the intruding, inanimate voice. "Leave me alone!" He slides to the floor and silently cries, eyes tight shut.

“ _Please. Don’t. Fight them, Bucky. Fight_!”

He wills the urgent voice away, but what feels like hours later when he gets up with an exhausted grunt and heads for bed, he doesn't take the pills.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoopsie. So...hey guys :D Two week holiday kinda made me forget a lot of things...like...this fic not being posted yet :D So here we go, posting the entire rest of the thing right here right now! ^^ 
> 
> Hope you'll like it! <3

"Talk to me Bruce," Steve prompts the doctor currently busy monitoring Bucky's condition.

"I don’t know what to tell you," he shrugs desperately. "I'm all kinds of wrong type of doctor for this," he adds in a sigh, pointing at the chair.

"Tony?" Steve turns to the frantically working engineer at the back of the room but only gets a very silencing hand wave.  "Tony!"

"Not now, Cap!" Tony huffs and continues to work through the HYDRA computers.

HYDRA did indeed attack the Tower during the 4th of July celebrations. They even had the audacity to try command the Soldier back to consciousness, but much to the team's and especially Tony's relief, they failed.

It didn't stop them from disabling him though and sneaking him out of the Tower while everyone was too busy fighting.

Tony spent the next three days doped on coffee searching for him with FRIDAY. The workshop was a no-go zone at the time - he wouldn't have anyone disturb him, not even Dummy and his suspiciously smelling baked potatoes.

In the end, after he pretty much hacked the entire deep web and took a couple flights to beat some information out of known HYDRA associates, he found the location of its new base - one they've taken Bucky into.

Which is where the team took the place by a devastating storm and in matter of minutes took over it.

They had been too late though. By the time they reached the lab, Bucky was unconscious, strapped to some kinda chair and the mad scientist that that put him there laid on the floor with his own bullet pierced through his head.

After some research, both Bruce and Tony agreed that simply unhooking Bucky from the chair would cause major brain damage, so since then they've been trying to figure out what the hell is HYDRA trying to do to him and more importantly – how to put a stop to it.

Tony sighs and glares at the chair. “Look at his brainwaves,” he tells Bruce and the doctor looks at the nearby monitor.

“I’m looking, Tony, what - ”

“That’s what they normally look like, right? I mean…when a person just goes about their everyday life, this is how the brainwaves behave.”

Bruce checks the monitor again and nods. “Yes, they appear that way…I see.”

“They’re using some sort of virtual reality,” Tony voices out his concern and narrows his eyes at Bucky’s frowny, pained face. “I think they re-programmed the chair’s interface to create some kinda scenario in his head. I mean, it makes perfect sense. They couldn’t completely brainwash him by force, so this time, they’re trying it the easy way.”

“The _easy_ way?” Steve repeats hesitantly, picking up on the fear in Tony’s voice.

“The chair allows them to access his memories…based on those, they could have set up a virtual reality solely constructed to…to make him stop fighting and surrender to their programming,” Tony pauses, trying to subdue the sheer fury he feels right now. If those motherfuckers weren’t dead already, he would suit up and obliterate them right about now. Hell, there must be plenty of HYDRA bases that he can still unleash his wrath upon. But Bucky comes first. “Basically, this means that he’s literally stuck inside his head and the only way he can get out is to do the one thing the chair is quite successfully trying to dissuade him from.”

“Fight,” Steve breathes out and Tony can tell by his hardened expression that he won’t be the only one leveling HYDRA bases with the ground in the near future. In fact, the whole team is beyond pissed ever since they’ve let Bucky slip into HYDRA’s hands again. Even Vision, who usually looks like he wouldn’t hurt a fly, seems to be ready to crush a few skulls with his bare hands.

HYDRA better be hiding in some lost, dark corner of the world, cowering in fear.

“Can we do something?” Natasha asks from the entrance, where she’s been fidgeting with Clint every since they found Bucky here, clearly ready to fly out and begin the HYDRA murder spree on their own.

Tony exchanges a searching look with Bruce and shrugs. “Mayyybeeee?”

“No, Tony, my face was clearly saying no,” Bruce argues but Tony stops him with a wave.

“Yeah yeah, I know. Well…we can’t just disconnect him and without the proper security passcodes I wouldn’t meddle in the chair’s programming either, _but_ …,” he points at Bruce suggestively. “Maybe there’s a way we could - ”

“No,” Bruce cuts him off resolutely.

Tony pouts. “You could at least hear me out.”

“I know exactly what you are thinking about so I am preemptively saying no.”

“What are you talking about, Tony?” Steve asks hopefully.

“B.A.R.F.! I think I could use it to temporarily access the interface and…I dunno, help out?”

“What does that stand for again? Besides the obvious?” Clint asks warily.

“Barton’s Ass Roasted on Fire, what do you think it stands for?” Tony snorts and glares at the archer. “As if your bird brain could understand what it is and what it does.”

“I thought the…B.A.R.F. works with memories,” Steve comes in.

“And so does _this_ thing!” Tony grins, ignoring Bruce’s gradually deepening disapproving stare. “If I hook it up with the chair, I think it will let me enter whatever fucked up shit it’s making Bucky live through.”

This time, Steve joins in Bruce’s glaring. “Hold on… _enter_? What do you - ”

“He wants to get himself stuck inside the chair’s virtual interface along with Bucky,” Bruce explains.

“Temporarily! _Temporarily_ , Cap. And I won’t be stuck.”

“You don’t know that, Tony,” Bruce retorts dismissively, even underneath the weight of Tony’s puppy pout. “Even if you’re going to use _your_ tech, once you hook it up to this, you have no idea how it’s going to interact.”

“I have some idea. Not to mention I put my trust in your and FRIDAY’s hands in case anything goes horribly wrong.”

“Not helping, Tony,” Bruce sighs.

“Gimme a better idea then! Because right now this is the only way we can somehow communicate to Bucky that whatever he’s going through right now is as fake as Fury’s eyebrows! FRIDAY! Send me the prototype, pronto!”

“ _Already on the way, boss_.”

“Which means you’ve got about half an hour to come up with something better before I install it and go through with this. Hope I don’t have to remind you that half an hour inside that thing might as well be an eternity so…like hell I’m leaving him in there alone for a fucking _second_ longer,” Tony adds in a mumble and starts preparations for his set-up, too busy to notice the present Avengers exchanging an all too knowing looks.

 

###

 

If this is Fletcher’s idea of getting better, then Bucky’s got a load of things to tell the man. But he can’t. He tried to tell him. But all the doctor says is that it must be the result of medication and the stress and whatever other bullshit he comes up with.

Bucky doesn’t trust him. In fact, he doesn’t trust anything right about now. Something the doctor would definitely blame on paranoia. Whatever the case, Bucky can’t trust something he doesn’t remember. Not even a flash of memory to go with what Fletcher’s been telling him. He’s done terrible things as the Winter Soldier and after breaking through the programming, he remembered all of it. Every person he killed, every Handler that mistreated him, every single hellish torture session they conjured for him.

So why wouldn’t he remember now? Not just the night he supposedly massacred the Avengers, but the entire sixteen months afterwards, too. Bucky learnt the hard way how elusive his mind can be, so in a way he feels more in control here than he should. If he can trust anything at any given time, it’s his instincts. And those are telling him that Fletcher is a liar.

And then there’s the mysterious voice, sometimes accompanied by shadowy figures, scaring the living crap out of him.

 _Hallucinations_ , Fletcher would say.

Well, to be honest, sometimes this whole place feels like one big hallucination. The voice though…that feels real.

“Your medication, Mister Barnes,” a nurse approaches him, handing him an assortment of pills in a small cup.

He takes it without a word and heads for the bathroom under her watchful gaze in order to get some water.

Or that’s what he’d have the nurse believe. The meds, he learnt, cloud his mind even more than the dreadful unknowingness and his instinct feels dead after taking just a single one of those pills.

So Bucky figured the pills might help the toilet instead.

He flushes them in there, watching them swirl in the water and suddenly feels a lot better than he did just moments ago. Like this terrible, oppressing weight on his shoulders had been lifted.

 “I’m so very disappointed in you, Bucky,” Fletcher ambushes him as soon as he emerges from the bathroom, his two gorilla security dudes in his company. “I really hoped this time you would just listen to me and play nice. You flushed the pills again, didn’t you?”

Bucky grits his teeth and glares at the doctor. “They’re not helping.”

“Of course they’re not! You’re not taking them!” Fletcher sighs and glances at the two security guys. “I’m so sorry, Bucky. I really don’t want to do this. But you’re leaving me no other choice,” he nods at them and in seconds Bucky is left struggling against the two men, somehow being able to overpower him.

“Let me go! Ya hear me?! Let me go! You’re lying! It’s all just a lie! I didn’t do nothin’!” he screams at first but ends in a desperate whimper.

“Paranoia, delusions…I warned you this might happen. As much as I’d rather not subject you to anything even remotely similar to HYDRA’s conditioning practices, if the pills aren’t good enough for you, more…drastic measures must be taken,” Fletcher recites and opens the door at the end of the hallway for them.

Bucky’s struggles cease as soon as he realizes what Fletcher plans on doing. The room he’s lead into instantly reminds him of HYDRA’s dark, stinky, humid laboratories full of various instruments of torture and crazed scientists ready to use them on him. This room is white and clean and seemingly safe…but the seat in the middle of it, so similar to the chair, is what really makes Bucky’s brain freeze.

Electroshock therapy, his mind provides for him. HYDRA loved to use electricity and the shady doctors often compared the techniques to a therapy commonly used in some hospitals. Torture or therapy, Bucky can’t see the difference. How is this supposed to help him?!

“Please don’t,” he manages in a whisper even as he’s being loaded onto the seat, his hand and legs strapped onto it.

This can’t be real. It’s the only explanation his racing mind provides for him so he sticks to it. There’s no way his twisted brain wouldn’t remember killing half of the Avengers. No. It would remember every second of it so it could torture him about it in nightmares and flashbacks. And Tony? He could never forget…never.

“This ain’t real. This ain’t real. This ain’t real,” he repeats over and over as if it would help him wake up from this all too real nightmare.

“I assure you, Bucky, this is perfectly real,” Fletcher grimaces and prompts the suddenly present nurse to begin the procedure. “Tell me how real is this going to feel?”

He braces himself for what’s to come, knowing there’s nothing he can do.

That is until that voice breaks through the ringing in his ears, stronger than ever before. “ _Fight this, Bucky! It’s not real! Fight them!_ ”

He listens, not stopping to think about why the voice is so familiar, now more than before, and he tugs with all his power against the restraints until he somehow breaks free. He shoves the nurse aside, making her collide with Fletcher and one of the gorillas while kicking at the second, gaining enough of an element of surprise to slide off the bed and bolt for the exit.

The hallway outside is empty, apart from the lone, shadowy figure rounding the corner at the far end of it. “ _This way_ ,” it tells him and Bucky runs, noticing out of the corner of his eye that the medical staff is beginning to recover.

He rounds the same corner as the figure had just moments ago, finding it leads inside an elevator he’s pretty sure wasn’t in there before. He eyes the buttons for the various floors in confusion, not knowing where to go, exactly. But when he hears Fletcher and his minions running up the hallway he just smashes a random button, backs against the wall behind him and prays the door closes before they arrive.

In the last second he spots the furious face of Doctor Fletcher, but the door shuts down and the elevator moves upward. Well, jumping off of buildings, helicarriers and trains is his thing after all.

When the door opens and he walks out, he realizes this is not the roof of some psychiatric hospital in the middle of nowhere, if the high-rises around is anything to go by.

This is the roof of the Stark Tower.

Overcoming the initial shock he moves forward but the second he does, Steve and some SHIELD agents come rushing out of the stairwell doors, blocking his way.

“Bucky?” Steve frowns and halts the agents’ movements. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?!” he bursts out, slightly backing off away from Steve. “This! All of this!”

“Hey,” Steve raises a placating hand and takes a non-threatening step forward. “It’s alright. You’re in the Tower, Bucky. You’re safe. Everything’s alright.”

“No it’s not!”

“Then we’ll make it alright. Let’s go down to the common room, see what the gang is up to today, hm?” he offers and Bucky backs away some more, shaking his head.

 “They’re dead. You said they’re dead.”

“Nobody’s dead, Bucky. Calm down. You’re okay. Everyone’s okay. Come down and see,” Steve offers again but before he can take another step towards Bucky, the voice speaks again, this time loud and clear.

“Don’t listen to him, Bucky. He’s not real.”

Both him and Steve look to the side to where the voice comes from. It’s Tony, standing by the railing, glaring sharp, poisonous daggers at Steve. “Tony?” Bucky breathes out, staring at the engineer in sheer wonder.

“Stark, this is not the time,” Steve all but growls, but it only makes Tony smirk.

“Wow, is this how you think Steve talks to me? Hilarious!” he chuckles, but his face remains serious as he eyes Bucky. “We don’t have much time. You’ve been taken by HYDRA. This? All of this is their fucked up version of Matrix they’ve worked into the chair to get the Winter Soldier back. Like…forever. Seriously, if you don’t fight your way outta here somehow, the Soldier’s gonna take over and it’s gonna be for good.”

Bucky looks at him and knows. He just knows that the one thing that’s real in this mess is Tony, right there. Him and that subtle fear in his eyes hidden beneath his trademark press snark-mask.

“You’re seeing things, hearing things. You’re obviously not in your right mind, Bucky.”

He turns around sharply to the sound of Fletcher’s voice, frowning at the man who is now standing where Steve had been just a moment ago.

“That what those sick fucks been feeding you in here?!” Tony growls and curses some more under his breath, muttering a furious: “We are so blowing HYDRA’s shit after this.”

If Bucky wasn’t confused, scared and pumped up on adrenalin right now, he’d chuckle. Hell, maybe even laugh and hug the living crap out of Tony, but if what he’s told him is true – and it is making a whole lot of sense to Bucky, now that he’s thinking about it – then he’s got a problem to solve first. Gonna save the hugging bit for later.

“Come with me, Bucky. Let us help you,” Fletcher pleads in an alluring voice but Bucky pays him no attention.

Instead, he moves towards Tony who in turn gives him an encouraging smile.

Which is where Fletcher materializes out of thin air between him and the engineer and yeah, he’s definitely in some weird, twisted version of the Matrix.

God he hated those movies. Brilliant, sure. But disturbing. Kinda like this.

“Stop fighting this, Bucky. Let us help you.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so. Get the fuck out of my way,” he spits out and Fletchers face morphs into Steve’s again.

“This is reality, Bucky. You can’t get out of here.”

Bucky shakes his head and stands up straighter to face the fake-Steve. “You can’t stop me.”

“I already have,” he says and this time, his face changes into the one of Alexander Pierce, The Winter Soldier’s Handler for many years. “You can’t get past me, Soldier,” he smirks and for just a moment, Bucky almost believes it.

But then he catches Tony’s determined glance from behind Pierce and gets all the resolve he needs back. “Watch me,” he dares Pierce with defiance he’d only recently managed to retrieve and literally steps _through_ Pierce and into the arms of the man he thought he’d never see again.

The world goes black around him, until he wills his eyes open. He blinks a couple times, focusing on the extremely concerned face of Steve Rogers. The real one, if his surroundings are any hint to him – a HYDRA lab and this thing he’s seated in is definitely _the_ chair.

“Ws’sup?” he slurs and Steve cracks a smile along with various chuckles from around the room.

“It worked,” Bruce sighs and looks to his right with concern. Bucky follows his eyes and spots Tony lying motionless in one of the office chairs. “Don’t worry, he’s just worn out,” Bruce speaks up before he can voice his concern and Bucky doesn’t miss the fact that while he’s announcing it to the entirety of the team, he looks at him specifically.

“It was still reckless.”

That’s Stevie’s disapproving mother-hen surfacing right there. He should probably go back to sleep.

Just the very thought of that should alarm him, but the team’s steady presence chases all the fears away. They’re here. They’re fine. They saved him.

Tony. Tony did that.

 

###

 

“Look! He’s waking up! See?! Ouch!”

“You’re too loud, Peter.”

“And you’re too mean.”

“She really is,” Bucky mumbles, recognizing the stern voice of one Natasha Romanov and the excited voice of the one and only teenage arachnid prodigy Peter Parker.

“You’re lucky you’re in a hospital bed or I’d smack you, too,” she says in that weird way that leaves you wondering if she’s joking or being serious.

“’m in a h’spital?!” he frowns and pries his eyes open. Instead of sterile white though, he spots the gray-ish walls of the Stark Tower and breathes out in relief.

“Not exactly hospital, no. Does that mean I get to smack you in the head?” she challenges and he groans.

“Save it for the bad guys.”

“Too late,” she shrugs and grins dangerously.

That’s how you know someone definitely died. Or multiple someones. Guy can never know with Natasha.

“Don’t look so disappointed. We left a couple known hideouts for you. Just don’t tell Tony, we wanna tease him about sleeping through the raids and missing all the fun for as long as we can.”

He raises his eyebrows at the spy and shakes his head. “Remind me never to piss you off.”

Her grin widens and with a wink, she moves to leave the room.

“The raid was awesome, dude! I’ll tell you all about it!” Peter offers enthusiastically, moving towards the bed but Natasha re-appears behind him and pulls at his ear, dragging him along to the door. “Ouch, you! Meanie! Ouch! I’m being a good bro!”

“You’re being loud.”

“Am not! Mister Stark! Tell the Spiderwoman I ain’t loud!”

“Whoa!” Tony pauses at the now opened door, hands up in defense. “Natasha. Hi.”

Bucky doesn’t need to see Natasha’s face to know she’s using her ‘I’m gonna kill you and nobody will ever find your body’ face.

“He’s all yours,” she pats him on the shoulder and drags the now even more sulky teenager out of the room, doors sliding behind them.

“Yeah…I wish,” Tony mutters and beams at Bucky. “So…back in the real world, huh?”

Bucky closes his eyes and rests his head on the comfy pillow. “I guess…I mean…this could just be another one of HYDRA’s fucked up scenarios and instead of escaping I’ve just dug even deeper into - ”

“Bucky?” Tony stops him with a slightly dizzy expression. “Just don’t. Because…that would mean I got stuck in there with you and now we’re both fucked.”

“Yeah…that’s a scary thought. But at least we’d be together?” Bucky smiles in an attempt to lighten up the mood.

Tony, well…Bucky could swear he’s got this one grin reserved for his eyes only and it’s spreading wide across his face right now. “Kinda like the thought of that…not the stuck in a HYDRA’s mind-fuck world bit…but the together bit? I kinda like that.”

“Imagine the things we can do…together,” Bucky suggests and the mood seems just right, what with the way Tony’s eyes light up…but then there’s a thud against the door and muffled grunt.

“Shit…I didn’t need to hear _that_.” Definitely Clint.

Another thud and a pained yelp follows which is where Natasha opens the door, holding Clint by the back of his shirt while he’s rubbing his forehead. “Excuse me,” she utters and conjures up her gun, aiming it firmly at the ceiling.

“Okay, okay! Jeez, woman!” Somebody screams and a few seconds later, Sam drops out of the vent. “It’s not like we were gonna eavesdrop on _this_ , like hell no!”

“Yeah, it escalated real quick!” Clint nods in agreement. “Besides, Steve made us babysit!”

Natasha rolls her eyes and with a single dismissive nod she sends both bird men running out into the corridors. “Children…I’ll go deal with Captain Manchild. You two…,” she pauses, eyeing us curiously. “Continue,” she all but orders and disappears.

The doors slide shut again, which brings Tony out of his stunned silence. “The fuck?!”

“No idea. Gonna kill Steve later cause…I believe we were in the middle of something?” Bucky grins and he doesn’t give a damn if Vision is spying on them behind the walls, he just let’s Tony bring him up for a kiss…then a second one…and third one…and maybe a dozen more.

All of them a proof that this is real and this is where Bucky belongs.


End file.
